Our top 10 routes for exploring a pié run the gamut from day-tripper walks and hikes to multi-week treks into high-altitude mountains. Here are our admittedly audacious picks for the world's top adventures on foot."
1. Hiking Annapurna Circuit, Nepal.This classic Himalayan trek is a classic for good reason: It encapsulates the best of Nepal, wrapping around the stunning Annapurna range to put you in the shadow of peaks that pierce 26,000 feet. Yak herds, eagle-like Himalayan griffons, blue sheep (so called because of the blue-gray hue their coat turns in winter), fluttering Buddhist prayer flags, and hot springs dot this central Nepal route, which starts in lush green foothills and climbs into high-altitude desert typical of the Tibetan plateau. Bonus: The lakeside town of Pokhara offers plentiful opportunities for shorter treks in the region for those who don't have three weeks to spare.
2. Hiking Wildkirchli Trail Hiking, Switzerland.This hike is short, but so sweet. Five miles south of Appenzell town at Wasserauen, hike or cable car up to the Ebenalp peak at 5,400 feet. Your reward? A mere 15-minute hike down takes you to a narrow, sunny ledge and the Wildkirchli--literally, little wild church--a 400-year-old cave church that housed hermit monks from 1658 to 1853. Clinging nearby is a hut built into the cliff to shelter pilgrims who hiked here to pray with the monks.
3. Hiking Havasu Canyon Trail, Arizona, U.S.A.Yes, millions of visitors crowd the red-rock grandeur of the Grand Canyon each year. But this trail takes off from the canyon's quieter, less accessible western edge. The hike is steep but stunning, dropping eight miles to the community of Supai, tribal headquarters of the Havasupai Indians and the only village within the canyon. And it only gets better from here. Below Supai, four major turquoise waterfalls, including 200-foot-high Mooney Falls, crash into the rock. Another eight miles or so down, past scores of smaller falls, and you've hit ground zero: the Colorado River.
4. Hiking Darién Gap, Panama.This two-week trek, punctuated by stints in dugout canoes, is generally sufficient to convince folks that Panama is about a lot more than cool straw hats and uncool dictators. It is also home to the Gap, so called because the Pan-American Highway takes a break here in the middle of the jungle that separates Central and South America. The coast-to-coast hike traces Spanish conquistador Balboa's 1513 journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific, moving from coconut plantations farmed by Kuna Indians, past Choco Indian settlements, through low but rugged mountains. Most of the Darién falls within a national park, making for pristine wilderness, replete with wild orchids, strangler fig trees, red and green macaws, and the elusive jaguar.
5. Hiking Crow Pass Trail, Alaska, U.S.A.Heading into the mountains south of Anchorage, this trail is easy to follow, but challenging. A steep four-mile hike to Crow Pass brings outstanding vistas of Raven Glacier and surrounding peaks in the Chugach Mountains. Depending on your energy and ambition, you can turn around here or press on to complete the entire 26-mile route tracing the Old Iditarod Trail, which was used by gold miners and dogsled teams until 1918, when the Alaska Railroad linked Seward to Fairbanks. Stop to take in the tundra wildflowers, explore abandoned mining ruins, and spot the mountain goats, dall sheep, moose, and bears lumbering along the ridges.
6. Hiking to K2 Base Camp, Pakistan.You earn more than bragging rights hiking to the base camp of the world's second-highest mountain. You also earn some of the world's most staggeringly beautiful scenery on this two-week trek along a surprisingly well-defined trail. At 28,250 feet and surrounded by glaciers, K2 rises like a pyramid from the Karakoram Range of northern Pakistan and southern Tibet. En route to the 16,500-foot base camp, you pass through Islamic villages and trek into utter wilderness filled with towering granite spires, rock and ice walls, and the intersection of three huge glaciers at the foot of K2. In a word: Wow.
7. Hiking Inca Trail, Peru.Most travelers flooding the mysterious Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, tucked away on a craggy plateau some 7,800 feet high, arrive by train. Tracing the ancient routes of the abandoned settlement's one-time residents along the Inca Trail, however, is a pilgrimage reserved for those on foot. Start the sojourn at kilometer marker 88 on the train from Cuzco. This four-day trek rewards hikers with views of cloud forests, high ridges of the central Andes, and several sets of intact ruins--not to mention the chance to traverse stone steps and tunnels carved by the Incas. One footnote (no pun intended): Savor at least one rising or setting of the sun over Machu Picchu before you leave by train.
8. Hiking Appalachian National Scenic Trail, U.S.A.This legendary 2,158-mile footpath traversing the ridge crests and major valleys of the Appalachian Mountains stretches from Mount Katahdin, Maine, to Springer Mountain, Georgia, traversing 14 states in its path. If you've got five or six months to spare, you can join the hard-core "thru-hikers" who spend a season covering the trail end to end. Or not. One slice that draws raves: the 8.7-mile Franconia Ridge loop in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Across the 90-mile stretch running through the Granite State, a string of backcountry alpine huts spaced a day's hike from one another offer trail comforts like cozy refuge from temperamental weather and a hot meal.
9. Hiking North Devon Coast Path, England.The Brits take their rambling seriously, for good reason. The North Devon, one chunk of the South West Coast Path that winds 594 miles through four counties, offers spectacular views of the Bristol Channel and humpback headlands from atop England's highest cliffs, exploding 1,200 feet from the sea. The path runs through Exmoor National Park with windswept moorland blanketed in heather. Other Exmoor visitors include wild ponies, red deer, and horned sheep nibbling Technicolor green grass. Start at the harborside town of Lynmouth, head west along the coast, and ramble on.
10. Hiking Torres del Paine Lookout, Chile.This national park in southern Patagonia triggers all sorts of superlatives from backpackers. Windswept and starkly beautiful, these mountains bear little resemblance to the sloping peaks of the Rockies or the rolling Alps. Instead, the torres, or towers, are dark, jagged granite spires that seem to tear at the sky while condors soar overhead. The spectacular 21-mile lookout trail can be done as an easy-to-medium overnighter, bringing you face-to-face with the torres and a turgid glacial lake. You might spot flamingos or guanaco (a cousin of the llama). Want more? Try the famous 63-mile Paine Circuit.
Lynn Schnaiberg, a Chicago-based writer, is a regular contributor to iExplore.
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